Vacuum cleaners can use a removable dirt cup to store collected dirt, dust and other contaminates for later disposal. The dirt cup can have a latch mechanism that selectively secures the dirt cup to the vacuum cleaner in a position to receive dirt, dust, and other contaminates. The latch mechanism also allows the dirt cup to be selectively removed from the vacuum cleaner to be emptied. Conventional latch mechanisms fasten only the dirt cup to the vacuum cleaner.
Some known latch mechanisms directly engage the dirt cup and require vertical movement of the dirt cup in order to secure or remove the dirt cup relative to the vacuum cleaner. For example, such latch mechanisms directly engage a bottom of the dirt cup to raise the dirt cup to secure it to the vacuum cleaner and lower the dirt cup to remove it from the vacuum cleaner. Examples of such latch mechanisms include: U.S. Pat. No. 6,732,406 to Oh, issued May 11, 2004; U.S. Pat. No. 6,735,816 to Oh et al., issued May 18, 2004; U.S. Pat. No. 6,782,584 to Choi, issued Aug. 31, 2004; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,922,868 to Jeong, issued Aug. 2, 2005. Other latch mechanisms indirectly engage the dirt cup to selectively raise or lower the dirt cup. One example of such a latch mechanism is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,991,667 to Yang et al., issued Jan. 31, 2006.